To the Power of Three

“Powerful….A gripping tale that is a mystery only in the same sense as To Kill a Mockingbird was….Brilliant, insightful, moving.”
—Chicago Sun-Times

There are excellent reasons why New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman has won the Edgar®, Agatha, Anthony, Nero Wolfe, and every other major award the mystery genre has to offer. To the Power of Three is just one of those reasons. Lippman’s brilliant and disturbing tale of three inseparable high school girlfriends in an affluent Baltimore suburb who share dark secrets literally until death, To the Power of Three is this “writing powerhouse” (USA Today), who has “exploded the boundaries of the mystery genre to become one of the most significant social realists of our time” (Madison Smartt Bell) operating at the very top of her game. Not merely crime fiction, but fiction that gets to the deep psychological, emotional, and human roots of a terrible crime, Lippman’s novel is one that will not be easily forgotten—a must read for fans of Kate Atkinson, Tana French, Jodi Picoult, and Harlan Coben

The three girls have been inseparable best friends since the third grade -- Josie, the athletic one; Perri, the brilliant, acerbic drama queen; and Kat, the beauty, who also has brains, grace, and a heart open to all around her. But their last day of high school becomes their final day together after one of them brings a gun to school to resolve a mysterious feud. When the police arrive, they discover two wounded girls, one so critically that she is not expected to recover. The third girl is dead, killed instantly by a shot to the heart.

What transpired that morning at Glendale High rocks the foundation of an affluent community in Baltimore's distant suburbs, a place that has barelyrecovered from an earlier, more comprehensible tragedy. For the shell-shocked parents, teachers, administrators, and students, healing must begin with answers to the usual questions -- but only if the answers are safe ones, answers that will lead back to one girl and one family and absolve everyone else.

For Homicide Sgt. Harold Lenhardt, this case is a mystery with more twists than these grief-stricken suburbanites are willing to acknowledge -- and the sole lucid survivor, a girl with a teenager's uncanny knack for stonewalling, strikes him as being less than honest. What is she concealing? Is she trying to protect herself or someone else? Even the simplest secrets can kill -- and kill again if no one is willing to confront them.

Breathtaking in its emotional depth, powerful, provocative, and consistently surprising, Laura Lippman's To the Power of Three carries the crime novel into richer, more fertile territory. It is the crowning achievement to date in an already exemplary literary career.

“Laura Lippman is among the select group of novelists who have invigorated the crime fiction arena with smart, innovative, and exciting work. She consistently delivers the goods.” - George Pelacanos

“Laura Lippman understands perfectly the power of adolescent passions and how easily they spiral out of control. Read To The Power of Three and despair of a world where guns are easier to come by than drugs.” - Val McDermid

“Every Secret Thing is an American-cheeseburger version of Highsmith’s bloody filet mignon, and that suited me fine.” - Nick Hornby on Every Secret Thing

“Wonderfully paced, realyl well crafted....The best book of hers that I’ve read.” - Kate Atkinson, author of Case Histories

“Lippman is a pro at finding fresh way to tell compelling stories.” - Orlando Sentinel

“One of the season’s most powerful new novels...a gripping tale that is a mystery only in the same sense as To Kill a Mockingbird was. This is a brilliant, insightful, moving tale of three girls....The plot is finely tuned and suspenseful, but the real power here is in the characters.” - Chicago Sun-Times

“With Every Secret Thing and now, especially, with To the Power of Three, Laura Lippman has exploded the boundaries of the mystery genre to become one of the most significant social realists of our time. Along with its riveting suspense, this new novel offers a cool, clear vision of Middle American society now, with much of its promise and most of its faults.” - Madison Smart Bell